Fly Me To the Moon...
There has been a big fly that has been flying around in my house for the last four days. I have no idea how that fly can go so long without stopping. I’ve chased it for hours and have since given up knowing that the damn thing can’t live forever. It is eventually going to have to land and die.
This fly reminded of one of the first problems I found with my house. When I moved it every wall was covered by dark paneling. If you were around in the 70’s you know that just about every surface in every house was paneled. It was a hideous trend that made every room look like a dark coffin.
The first thing I did was to take out all the paneling. Under it was sheetrock that nearly butted up to the knotty pine ceiling in the living room. There was a small bit of a gap which didn’t bother me until the first warm day after that. I came into the house to notice there were thousands of giant flies. I couldn’t figure how they were getting in at first, but then it looked like a fly waterfall coming from the gap in the sheetrock. There was a gap in the exterior siding where the flies were getting into the wall and once in the wall they just continued their journey into the house. There was nothing in the wall that would attract them, unless there was a dead mouse in there or something.
There were too many flies to swat so I had to go to the hardware store to get a no-pest fly strip. I caulked the gap where they were getting in then I set up the pest strip. This is a real dangerous poison though it is supposed to be only for indoor use. I didn’t want to live in the house while it was doing the deed, so I took off and stayed with a friend that night.
When I returned the next day there were dead flies everywhere. I vacuumed up five gallons of them. I can’t believe a concentration like that. I’ve never seen that sort of thing in the wild. It was a perfect storm of flies.
posted by The Guy Who Writes This at 6:12 AM
6 Comments:
Cluster flies. One of many disadvantages of living in an old house. But don't get me started.
My mom retired to a rural, old property and several years ago was amazed to find not only flies in the walls, but an infestation of Asian Ladybugs. After consulting the local extension office and university, she was instructed to soak the exterior of the house with something--maybe malathion during a particular time of each year. Nice. However, it does the trick (and so far, the folks haven't grown a third eye or extra appendages). She says she, in the first year, vaccumed up about 30 lbs of Ladybugs. They are also a real threat to crops out there.
Makes me appreciate my little bat buddies all the more:)
Hahn at Home, I grew up in a house that had terrible ladybug infestations as well as flies. We are talking mega flies and beetles here. The beetles stink to high heaven from the urine stuff they put out and you literally at some times of the year could get about 30 pounds of them by hoovering the whole house.
ICK. Along with mice and a couple of asshole relatives, flies and ladybugs were some of the plagues we suffered growing up.
I'm glad to hear other's have had the same problem, though my problem is now fixed. I'll have a good article on live stock fly control sooner or later here. I've just about eliminated the problem.
large number of flys suddenly coming out of the woodwork means there's a dead critter within the wallspaces-fly eggs are laid upon dead flesh so the maggots have something to subsist on during that post larval but pre-fly stage of fly life.
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